Gabby has been doing really well with shaping lately. So I brought out weave poles. SHE WAS OFFERING TO WALK between them in the first session. It's not as glamorous as that sounds, and it's not like she actually knew what she was doing but by golly, I was shaping weave poles.

Don't quit on Mia! She'll figure it out& it will be SO worth it!
Beanie.. Penn's first real trial is in March. And she runs contacts. But she just doesn't actually always hit the contact zone. Maybe 2% of the time? LOL! Take Penn for a month& fix her too?

I follow a blog with a lady& her herding dog. It's not a Border but it's a herder. She's always SO HARD on her dog for not being a Border ..and yet, she bought the breed with intentions of doing agility and always blames the dog when it doesn't work out. I understand being frustrated but every post is pretty much how crappy the dog is doing& she posts videos of faster dogs of her same breed& says she wishes her dog was more like them. I remind her her dog is same age as Penn& she just needs to build the drive. She's giving up& getting a Border Collie in the next few weeks. Makes me so frustrated. Her dog would be great if she would believe in her& train instead of complain.

Lirl. Poor Mimi. I have a Whippet for an agility dog, breed fail! Also might have EzraWhippet as a dock diver. Double breed fail! I can't imagine trading them in for something potentially predisposed to be 'better'.

Mimi demotivates easily and I have to take that in to account when working with her. Everything needs to be happy. I can't 'drill' without her getting irritated. I also can't expect her to do repetitive tasks, it isn't in her nature. If she starts trotting through the sequence as opposed to whippet speed, something's up and it's typically my fault,I've not put enough reward in whatever that particular thing is. I've noticed it more when I work on something new, like when I started training weaves, weaves were omg party! and jumping lost it's value in comparison. I didn't notice until I tried using a jump before the weaves. She'd blow the jump entirely to get to the weaves.

I hope I don't sound like I hate Mia. She's the best dog I've ever had. And probably the best dog I will ever have. She's something special.

I do get frustrated though because I don't know where we went wrong as far as speed goes. She's so hit or miss- either way intense or just 'lalalalala I'm not even trying!'. I am noticing it happens if we drill a lot. She gets bored. When we switch exercises to weaves or something she picks back up. She is so smart too that she will sometimes beeline for weaves or for the teeter if she sees it because she knows those areas are more likely to get her food. Maybe jumps just have decreased too much in value? She will do the jumps better if she has a target or something after them.

At home training she is about 3x faster than in class. But we do shorter sequences because of space issues.

Summer is a dog that will drill and drill and drill and just fly the whole time. It's so much easier.

I am very happy Mia is playing with toys though! my trainer was really excited she's finally playing in class well. And Mia is playing with a variety of toys vs only tennis balls. We've had icy and snowy ground here for about 2 weeks straight so my 'do weaves every day' thing didn't work so well. So we've just been playing every day. I've made it a goal to play with Mia with at least 2 non-ball toys daily and it's making such a difference!

herding dog. It's not a Border but it's a herder. She's always SO HARD on her dog for not being a Border ..and yet, she bought the breed with intentions of doing agility and always blames the dog when it doesn't work out. I understand being frustrated but every post is pretty much how crappy the dog is doing& she posts videos of faster dogs of her same breed& says she wishes her dog was more like them. I remind her her dog is same age as Penn& she just needs to build the drive. She's giving up& getting a Border Collie in the next few weeks. Makes me so frustrated. Her dog would be great if she would believe in her& train instead of complain.

That's really sad.

I mean, here's the thing... I do get a little frustrated sometimes when training. Fortunately, in our class Kili is right on par with the other dogs which is very uplifting. I am so proud of her, but we absolutely struggle with certain things that come more easily to other breeds. And yes, it is a little MORE frustrating if she struggles with something because I did get her specifically with agility in mind and trialing in mind. BUT!

Big but. If I only wanted an agility dog I would have gotten a border collie. A border collie is absolutely, 100% a better suited breed to the sport. But I didn't want a border collie. I wanted a greyhound for numerous personal, non-sporting reasons. AND I wanted to do agility. When I get a little frustrated I try to really remind myself of that. She is a pet first and foremost and an agility partner second.

Sounds like this person should have been more honest about what they wanted a dog for and chosen accordingly. If she really just wants an agility dog she probably should have chosen a BC to begin with. If there was some reason why she chose this other breed then she should be more patient, have more realistic expectations, and stick it out.

I do get frustrated though because I don't know where we went wrong as far as speed goes. She's so hit or miss- either way intense or just 'lalalalala I'm not even trying!'. I am noticing it happens if we drill a lot. She gets bored. When we switch exercises to weaves or something she picks back up. She is so smart too that she will sometimes beeline for weaves or for the teeter if she sees it because she knows those areas are more likely to get her food. Maybe jumps just have decreased too much in value? She will do the jumps better if she has a target or something after them.

She sounds like Mimi, honestly. Mimi KNOWS the obstacles that were/are jackpot rewards. Two classes ago we had a 270* turn, out over one jump, I had to support the turn, and bring her back in over the second jump. Mimi was having none of it and would just trot around to the second jump. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little jealous of people who have dogs that happily run at speed beside their handlers. My trainer backed me up and essentially I needed to put the reward back in to jumps and particularly instances where I have to call her back as opposed to sending her on. She'll slow down if I'm not moving and a pivot 270* turn seemed to summarize that.

Big but. If I only wanted an agility dog I would have gotten a border collie. A border collie is absolutely, 100% a better suited breed to the sport. But I didn't want a border collie. I wanted a greyhound for numerous personal, non-sporting reasons. AND I wanted to do agility. When I get a little frustrated I try to really remind myself of that. She is a pet first and foremost and an agility partner second.

Kudos to you for knowing what you really want for you and your dogs' happiness and going for it.

My personal opinion has always been that if you don't actually want a certain dog/breed, they will probably not be the right choice for you no matter how suited they are on paper. I know enough people who have chosen a breed solely because they want to succeed in XYZ and sometimes it works out but more often it doesn't...they don't mesh as a team. And generally they don't seem to enjoy the dog away from competition at all...s/he is just a tool to accomplish their goals, and nothing more. Which is both crazy and sad to me.

She sounds like Mimi, honestly. Mimi KNOWS the obstacles that were/are jackpot rewards. Two classes ago we had a 270* turn, out over one jump, I had to support the turn, and bring her back in over the second jump. Mimi was having none of it and would just trot around to the second jump. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little jealous of people who have dogs that happily run at speed beside their handlers. My trainer backed me up and essentially I needed to put the reward back in to jumps and particularly instances where I have to call her back as opposed to sending her on. She'll slow down if I'm not moving and a pivot 270* turn seemed to summarize that.

At least I have Summer to keep me sane. She just runs cause it's fun and she loves the game. And Summer isn't a thinker like Mia is. Summer takes everything at face value and never tries to outsmart me or figure out a way around. I don't think it would even occur to her that you could skip ahead to get to the food faster.

Mia's a neat dog... difficult though a lot of the time. How are you rewarding the jumps with Mimi now? I've been trying to reward speed lately regardless of performance. If she's turned on and working with me (or attempting to), I jackpot.

At least my trainer now sees Mia isn't 'tired' and is just lacking motivation.

I can't imagine getting a dog breed you didn't like or want to live with just for sport. My next dog will be a herder but primarily because I like herders and miss having them.

Beanie.. Penn's first real trial is in March. And she runs contacts. But she just doesn't actually always hit the contact zone. Maybe 2% of the time? LOL! Take Penn for a month& fix her too?

Let's see if I can fix Auggie's first LOL. First day of Louisville is March 13th so I have about a month. Holy crap I'm starting to panic a little bit. I have SO MUCH to work on with everybody, and there's still over a foot of snow outside and a nice layer of ice underneath it. I can't even take anybody out to practice on the actual contacts because of the snow and ice...
Auggie doesn't usually miss his contacts because he's slow, so I can get in front of him and really make him stick it. But I would rather he actually have good contacts. =P